Health Delivery

The changing face of health care requires new, transdisciplinary models of delivery of care. Facing challenges such as skyrocketing health care costs, more people entering the system, a rise in chronic diseases, and a rapidly aging population, ASU is dedicated to changing the paradigm and directing the focus toward promoting healthy behaviors, as well as delivering health care in novel ways.

Health and Well-Being

Health care is changing in many positive ways and ASU strives to be at the forefront. By embedding health promotion and disease prevention into health care, the university directly benefits the health and wellbeing of the community. Ongoing research is in areas such as lifestyle and behavior change, diabetes prevention, cardiovascular disease, adult and childhood obesity, healthy workplace environments, and nutrition and exercise science.

Conquering Disease

ASU's world-class research faculty, centers and institutes bring together thought-leaders in science, humanities, social sciences, health and engineering to spearhead new approaches to target and treat cancers, understand the spread, evolution and emergence of infectious disease, personalize medicine, and devise strategic interventions for obesity, Alzheimers and mental health challenges.

Whether it is the development of diagnostics or wearable technologies to rapidly detect cancer, or a novel vaccine delivery for Ebola, ASU is striving to advance knowledge and leverage a transdisciplinary approach to health into 21st century solutions for diverse local and global communities.

Informatics and Technology

Health research in the areas of informatics and technology at ASU ranges from investigating ways to harness Big Data, to understanding the causes of Alzheimer’s disease and improving methods for predicting epileptic seizures.

Neuroscience

The brain – and how it is used it to live life to the fullest– is at the center of ASU’s knowledge enterprise. ASU spearheads interdisciplinary work in neuroscience, psychology and the behavioral sciences.

Global Health

Arizona State University is committed to finding new solutions by recognizing that major health challenges stem from many factors beyond disease itself – factors that are ecological, cultural, institutional, historical, evolutionary, social and technological. Effective, sustainable solutions to our most pressing global health challenges will need to take all of these factors into account, as well as the complex ways in which they interrelate.

Policy, Law and Bioethics

Laws and related policies play a pivotal role in public health prevention efforts. Well-known examples — like vaccinations, tobacco control and food safety — reflect how laws can be used to mitigate disease and injury.

About

Culture of Health

Health at Arizona State University

Transdisciplinary and life-changing work is taking place across ASU's many health related programs, departments, centers and institutes.

Health Communication Initiative

The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication in the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences focuses on understanding and improving communication in everyday life. The Health Communication Initiative (HCI), headed by Professor Olga Davis, narrows the focus to communication with respect to health and well being. Areas of research include: alcohol and drug abuse and recovery, the role of affection on stress and the outcomes of communication on sexual behavior.

The initiative is transdisciplinary; communications experts inform human subjects research of all varieties, providing guidance on how best to impact compliance, how to message most effectively or how to persuade people to adopt healthy behaviors.

ASU faculty explore the complexities of health communication in an increasingly global world and offer appropriately nuanced and locally-specific solutions to communication dilemmas in health care contexts. For example, one study examines how the culture of college campuses influences student decisions about alcohol use. Another project explores how cultural beliefs about gender impact the delivery and efficacy of health care messages to women living in border communities.